Elevator systems are in widespread use for carrying passengers between different levels in a building. Over the years, there have been a variety of advances and changes in elevator system components. One such advance has been in the area of passenger interfaces. Traditionally, hall call buttons allowed a passenger to request an elevator car to carry them up or down from their current location. More sophisticated devices have been introduced that allow a passenger to specify their intended destination before they board an elevator car. Such destination-entry systems present a variety of possibilities for configuring the passenger interface.
A contemporary device that is well-suited for destination-entry passenger interfaces is a touch screen that displays information to a passenger and allows a passenger to make selections to communicate their intended destination to the elevator system. One advantage to touch screen displays is that they provide an ability to customize the display to meet passenger or building owner needs, for example. One drawback to touch screen displays, however, is that they typically do not allow visually impaired or blind passengers to communicate their intended destinations to the elevator system. The nature of a touch screen display does not allow for tactical indicators that would assist a visually impaired or blind person to make an appropriate selection or to otherwise interact with the passenger interface device.